Rammanohar Lohia - Anecdotes

Anecdotes

• While in school reading the prescribed history book, Lohia noted that the British author of the textbook referred to the great Hindu king Shivaji as a "bandit leader". Lohia researched the facts, and proved that the label "bandit leader" was an unjust description of the Maharaj. Lohia launched a campaign to have the description striken from the textbook.
• When Lohia returned to India in 1933 from abroad, a comical situation arose. He had no money to reach his hometown from the airport. He quickly wrote a nationalistic article for The Hindu, one of the most popular and widely read newspapers, and got money to pay for the fare home.
• In the midst of the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, Ram Manohar Lohia was being desperately sought by a lady from Europe. Lohia was contesting from Kannauj, but he was mostly in Phulpur, Jawaharlal Nehru's pocket borough, campaigning for the late Janeshwar Mishra, who was pitted against the formidable Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Nehru's sister.It was a watershed election in the sense that the results would finally show that the Congress was not totally invincible, that dents could be made in its armour. So Lohia was leaving nothing to chance. But the messages from his aides about the persistent European lady just would not end. Finally, Lohia relented, put his election work aside. A meeting was fixed at Allahabad. The woman turned out to be Stalin's daughter Svetlana, desperately seeking extension of her visa to build a memorial for her late husband Brajesh Singh of the Kalkanker royal family.Since the erstwhile USSR was opposed to India entertaining Svetlana, even the fact that Singh's nephew, Dinesh Singh, was in Indira Gandhi's inner circle did not help.Lohia, the stormy petrel of Indian politics, was her last hope. As expected, he advised Svetlana to fight it out, not leave India and he promised to raise her case in Parliament. At the same time, Lohia, the fountainhead of anti-Congressism and an ardent opponent of the Nehru-Gandhi family, did all he could to capitalise on Svetlana's personal tragedy in political terms. After the Allahabad meeting, Lohia turned to his colleagues and said, "This is the difference between Europe and Asia. The daughter of Stalin is running around in circles to extend her visa while the daughter of Nehru is India's Prime Minister."